How Will Mark Ingram's Return Affect Alvin Kamara?

How Will Mark Ingram's Return Affect Alvin Kamara?

The New Orleans Saints have it made in their backfield. Last season, their run game featured not one, but two running backs that were highly effective throughout the season. The team stuck with Mark Ingram as the feature back, while mixing in a heavy dose of their third-round pick last year, Alvin Kamara. Together, the running backs totaled for an impressive 1,852 rushing yards in 2017.

The mix of Kamara and Ingram was deadly, and nobody knew how things would go for the first four weeks of the 2018 season. Ingram was suspended by the NFL for PED use. But now that Ingram is back and ready to work, he comes in and takes away some of the workloads that Alvin Kamara was getting. So, what’s the plan for the Saints moving forward?

Saints head coach Sean Payton doesn’t seem to be into easing Ingram back into the mix. Right away, the Saints plan to create a balance between the two backs so they can have a one-two punch in their run game. If anybody is worried about Kamara’s effectiveness completely decreasing, just know that it won’t happen.

Kamara’s value will be just fine

It’s almost like Kamara isn’t even a running back at this point. The guy is putting up WR1 numbers. There is one aspect that could potentially kill Kamara’s fantasy value, though. On the ground, Kamara has five touchdowns this season. In the passing game, he only has one.

There’s a good chance that Ingram receives more red zone carries over Kamara upon his return. It just makes sense since he is more of a power-style back. So, Kamara will definitely lose some carries, but there’s no possible way the Saints take away his touches in the passing game.

For fantasy purposes, hold on tightly to Kamara. His big games are going nowhere. Right now, the Saints are rolling, and there’s no possible way that they start shying away from using Kamara as much when they got an excellent thing going.